Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drawer rail and a home appliance including the same.
Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a home appliance, such as a refrigerator, a dishwasher, etc., includes a drawer, a shelf or a basket in order to accommodate items therein. Such an item accommodation unit is provided so as to be movable forwards and backwards. For example, the item accommodation unit of a dishwasher is a basket. A user may draw out the basket by pulling the same to put or take dishes in or out of the basket. Thereafter, the user may push the basket into the dishwasher.
The movement of an item accommodation unit in the forward-and-backward direction may be realized by various structures. For example, a rail groove may be formed in a cabinet, and a roller, which is configured to move forwards and backwards along the rail groove, may be mounted to the item accommodation unit. Accordingly, the item accommodation unit is capable of moving forwards and backwards along the rail groove. However, this structure has a shortcoming in that the distance that the item accommodation unit can move forwards and backwards is relatively short and in that, when the weight of the item accommodation unit increases, the movement of the item accommodation unit may not be realized smoothly and stably.
In particular, in the case of a basket of a dishwasher, very heavy dishes are accommodated in the basket. Therefore, in order to stably move the basket forwards and backwards, a very firm support structure is needed for the basket. Further, in order to minimize the movement path of a user when the user puts heavy dishes in the basket or removes the same, the basket needs to be drawn as far as possible out of the main body, the cabinet or the tub of the dishwasher. In particular, dishes accommodated in the basket need to be arranged at a regular interval. The reason for this is to effectively and evenly wash the entire area of the dishes. In the case in which the basket is disposed in the tub, it is more difficult to arrange the dishes in the basket. For this reason, it is desirable to draw the entire basket out of the tub of the dishwasher.
Therefore, a very firm support structure is required in consideration of a relatively long movement distance, a relatively distant withdrawal position, and a relatively heavy weight of the basket and the dishes accommodated therein.
U.S. Patent Publication No. US2010/0108109A1 (hereinafter, referred to as a “prior art”) discloses a drawer rail of a dishwasher.
The disclosed drawer rail includes an outer rail (a first rail), which is mounted to a tub, and an outer rail (a second rail), to which a basket is mounted. An inner rail (a third rail) is provided between the above outer rails. The inner rail slides relative to the outer rails using ball bearings, which are provided in a retainer.
When the basket is withdrawn, the second rail first slides relative to the third rail. When the second rail, moving relative to the third rail, reaches the end position, the third rail slides relative to the first rail until it reaches the end position. Therefore, the process of withdrawing the basket is performed in two stages, making it possible to increase the withdrawal distance of the basket and to securely support the weight of the basket.
The first rail, the second rail, and the third rail are coupled to one another from the left to the right in such a way as to be spaced apart from one another. In order to allow the relative movement among the first rail, the second rail, and the third rail, these rails are designed to have sufficient gaps therebetween.
For this reason, as the number of times that the basket is pushed in and drawn out increases or when a very large amount of force is applied to withdraw the basket, the possibility of the rails becoming separated from one another may also increase. This is because the gap between the rails may increase when the second rail moves to the end position from the third rail or when the third rail moves to the end position from the first rail. That is, when the length from a stopper for limiting the maximum movement of each rail to the distal end of each rail increases, the gap between the rails in the lateral direction may increase beyond an allowable range.
Further, the basket is mounted to the second rail and is separated from the second rail as needed. However, it is not easy to mount or separate the basket to or from the second rail because the position of the second rail is not fixed.
Furthermore, the drawer rail is mounted to the tub and is separated from the tub as needed. However, it is not easy to mount or separate the drawer rail to or from the tub because the drawer rail is mounted inside the tub.